Is Seeing Believing?
by Rabid Lola
Summary: An innocent bystander's first impression after seeing an...odd couple. Kazuki x Ren.


_**Is Seeing Believing?  
**  
A Kazuki/Ren Story by Rabid Lola  
  
A/N: You know what's not mine, and is from the Get Backers. Riyuji is the patented name of my grandchild. Shinamo is some random name that's only trying to be Japanese. Wait...should I be admitting that? :D  
  
Slightly AU. Coz Ren's real and able to get out of Mugenjou.  
  
I had fun writing this. :D I have an evil little sense of humor. Ehehe. :D_  
  
...--....  
  
Two people were sitting beside a lake one day...one of those cultivated lakes, set in the middle of a park, with ducks and swans and artful reeds, and a pretty, decorative railing all around, and meandering pathways circling and radiating from it. A lake not too large, not too small.  
  
Drinking buddies...they had a few bottles of beer with them. Not enough to get them drunk, though...they liked beer. It was their water. Their source of life. Uh-huh. Anyway...  
  
Why, you may ask, did they choose to go out and bring a few bottles of beer to a restful, brightly-lit park and not go down to smoky, dim bar where they could get an infinitely greater amount?  
  
How should I know. I'm not a telepath.  
  
The point is, these two were there. At that time. That hour. Which was about...oh, four o'clock in the afternoon. A restful time. Not many people around. Most finishing a snooze in their apartments, houses, beds, or 360 Ladybugs.  
  
Which was why they were surprised...only slightly, to observe a very odd couple strolling down the paths on the opposite side of the lake.  
  
Shinamo nudged Riyuji lightly, gesturing carefully with his beer bottle. "Hey, Yuji...check out the sweethearts over there."  
  
Riyuji sat up, glaring at his friend. He'd been lying on the ground, cap covering face, trying to take a nap himself. "You disturb my rest just to gossip, Shinamo? Jeez, what has your girlfriend done to you..."  
  
"Feh. Shut up, Yuj. Look." Shinamo chortled. "They're a funny-looking pair, aren't they?"  
  
Riyuji finally condescended to look where his obviously-bored-with-nothing- better-to-do-friend was pointing.  
  
Funny-looking, yes...a little. The boy looked normal enough...maybe too young to have a girlfriend, though. He had short, reddish-brown hair, set in an untidy array of spikes...not as spiky as the brown sea-urchin head they'd seen some days ago. He was dressed casually...loose, long-sleeved red and white shirt, pushed up until his elbows, green vest, jeans, sneakers. And he was small.  
  
A fact punctuated by the height of his girl. She was...tall. Abnormally tall...the tallest girl they'd ever seen. Two heads taller than him, at least...it was rather comical. Her hair was long, and brown...arranged in several tails currently trailing down her back. She had strange...but cute, hair ornaments...seemed to be little bells. Yup, they were bells...the two could hear the soft jingling as the couple strolled. She wore comfortable, light-colored pants, and had a loose, long-sleeved, top, too...more like a tunic, though. And off-shoulder. And a little frilly at the top. Yet she was rather...flat-chested. And no straps were visible...Made you wonder what was holding the shirt up. She was really good-looking though.  
  
"The guy's a titch," Shinamo continued, in a low voice. Not that the couple, apparently busy talking, would notice. "He's...what, a foot shorter than his girlfriend?"  
  
Riyuji snorted. "Yeah..." Suddenly, he leaned forward, and his eyes widened. "Hey, Shinamo, that's no girl! That's Fuuchoin Kazuki! The cool guy who does that weird thing with strings!"  
  
Shinamo's eyes widened, and leaned forward too. "Hey, yeah! Cool!" he leaned back again, laughing. "Man...I was almost gonna check her...him out...The people here weren't kidding when they said he looked like a girl!"  
  
Suddenly, his eyes bugged out. "Uh..."  
  
Kazuki was strolling along. And laughing. And talking. With... another guy. And the talk didn't look like the friendly yak-yak-yakking. It looked...intimate. Eew. And...they were holding hands?!  
  
And they stopped. And the shorter boy laughed, at something Kazuki said. And swatted... _swatted?!_ at him. And Kazuki grinned and caught the boy's hand and brought his other hand up to the boy's cheek and bent and...  
  
Riyuji couldn't hold back his chortles as he saw the faintly green tinge on his friend's face. Shinamo turned with a rather desparate, demanding glare. "What are you laughing at?!" he choked out, in a low voice, so as not to disturb the...couple. "I mean...I know Kazuki had to be feminine and all, because of the requirement and crap for his techniques, but..."  
  
Riyuji continued to snicker. "Your face..."  
  
Shinamo was hissing now, still greenish in color. "Hey I'm not as used as you seem to be to seeing guys..."  
  
"No no buddy. The other one's a girl."  
  
"It IS?!"  
  
"Yeah, the it's blue," Riyuji said loudly, staring up at the sky as Kazuki and his companion's heads jerked in their direction, both blushing faintly. Riyuji glanced down, grinned, and waved. The girl grinned and waved back. "Hi Yuji-san!"  
  
"Hi Ren-chan! Excuse my buddy," he gestured expansively to Shinamo, then to the beer bottles. "He's drunk."  
  
Shinamo decided not to try to look the part and continued his openmouthed stare at Riyuji.  
  
"Oh, okay!"  
  
"Sorry for bothering you, Ren!"  
  
Ren and Kazuki smiled, nodded, and turned away, continuing their talk and still holding hands.  
  
"Yes, she's a girl," Riyuji continued quietly to Shinamo. "I didn't recognize her at first. Old friend of mine...a pharmacist. Named Ren, obviously. She's always dressed like that."  
  
Shinamo groaned and fell back, head hitting the grass with a soft thunk. "You could have told me sooner."  
  
"I told you, I didn't recognize her."  
  
"I know. But...ugh. That was one of the most traumatic moments of my life." Shinamo shuddered and took a good swig out of the bottle in his hand. After a moment of silence, he turned his head and glanced towards Kazuki and Ren again. They were continuing their walk, now...away from the drinking buddies, which Shinamo was thankful for. He'd need some time to adjust his mind to not believing what his sight was telling him.  
  
He cocked his head, watching the feminine Kazuki and boyish Ren, silhouetted against the sun.  
  
"Riyuji?"  
  
Riyuji cocked an eyebrow down at his partner. "Whatcha thinking of now?"  
  
Shinamo grinned. "You gotta admit, they make a pretty cute couple."  
  
A snort and the popping of a beer bottle cap was the only reply he got.  
  
end 


End file.
